Green thumbs cultivate skills in garden club
By Shari Kaplan
Folk wisdom dictates that April showers bring May flowers. While that is still the case at times, the amount of flowers a garden bears is usually more dependent on the care and perseverance of the gardener.
That's definitely the case among the nearly 40 members of the Foothill Garden Club, all of whom are dedicated green thumbs--some armed with professional experience, some with just a strong love of all things green.
Despite its name, says president Phil Bush of Cupertino, the Foothill Garden Club consists of members throughout the South Bay, particularly Saratoga, Los Gatos, San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Los Altos. Originally a men's club, it is now open to women as well.
The club meets seven times yearly in the Fireside Room at West Valley Presbyterian church in Cupertino. Meetings usually include guest speakers on garden-related topics. The group also sponsors an annual spring plant sale in the Rancho Shopping Center in Los Altos, whose proceeds go toward local scholarships and horticultural organizations. The plants are grown by the members.
"A nice thing about the club is that you get plants from other members and you can share gardening ideas and tips with them," says member Bill Holzmer of Saratoga. The longtime green thumb also says the club really rallies around its plant sales.
Monte Sereno resident Charles Holtz is also a longtime member, having joined in the 1960s. At the time, he and his wife ran Greenleaf Nursery in Mountain View. Holtz joined after he ran into an old friend who told him about the club.
Joining was an easy decision for Holtz, who became fascinated by plants in the U.S. Army during World War II, although his green thumb had developed much earlier: "I've been gardening since I was a youngster. I grow anything under the sun!"
Stationed at various locales in the South Seas, including Papua New Guinea and Australia, he brought home many seeds after his tour of duty ended. "I started planting so much around the house and yard that my wife and I decided to open up a nursery," he says of Greenleaf, which specialized in exotic plants. Some of the greenery was so unusual that editors from Sunset magazine paid visits to check it out.
When Holtz's wife died several years ago, he says he made a New Year's resolution to plant something every day in her memory. He continues to this day, utilizing not only his yard but his greenhouse, where some trees have flourished so much that they're bumping into the ceiling.
Among the most unusual crops are the cherimoyas--tropical fruits with a scaly green exterior and a custard-like flesh often described as a combination of banana, pineapple, papaya and lemon. Holtz also grows Capparis spinosa, better known as the caper bush, from which edible flower buds are harvested. The original seeds came from Malta, where his wife's family is from.
"If you name it, I probably grow it, or used to grow it!" Holtz says, chuckling.
Saratogan Holzmer got involved for reasons similar to Holtz's--a friend encouraged him to join. He didn't have a horticultural career like Holtz, but he has always been attracted to botanical pursuits.
While studying economics and business administration at Ohio State University--he would later work in chemical sales--Holzmer would look wistfully at the horticultural department's greenhouse. "I used to think, 'That's where I wish I could be!'" he recalls.
Some 30 years ago, he and his family bought a house in Saratoga on a quarter of an acre, which Holzmer takes complete advantage of. "I love growing plants, and I love giving them away," he says. "We have a little bit of everything. In this climate, if you water things and give them a little fertilizer, they can grow like weeds!"
"My garden sometimes looks like a 'wild garden,' but it's beautiful in its prime," says Holzmer, whose specialties include geraniums, verbenas, daisies and gladiolus. He also maintains a rose garden and a succulent garden and enjoys grafting fruit trees, including an apple tree that grows eight different varieties of the crunchy fruit.
"Either you love gardening or you don't. It's a cheap, fun hobby in which you can enjoy the fruits of your labors," he says.
For information about the Foothill Garden Club, call Phil Bush at 408.252.0665 or Dick Condy at 408.257.8538.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
